If you’re considering purchasing an electric car in the near future, you might find yourself tempted by new, budget-friendly brands emerging from China, rather than sticking with the established names like Ford, Vauxhall, or Volkswagen. Options like the Hedgehog E400, Zotye i-across, or even the Ora Funky Cat may present an appealing alternative.
Chinese electric vehicles are indeed becoming more prevalent. Brands like Zeekr, SAIC, Geely, Great Wall, Fengon, and Foton, already popular in China, are starting to appear on roads across the globe.
Charging ahead: BYD, the world’s biggest-selling Chinese EV brand, has already surpassed Tesla in sales (iStock)
BYD, a Chinese automaker, has announced a commercial battery that can charge in approximately the same amount of time it takes to refuel a gasoline car. Their ‘Super E-Platform’ allows for 1,000 kW charging speeds, which is four times faster than Tesla’s 250 kW Superchargers.
This isn’t the first time East Asia has become a major competitor in the automotive market. In the 1960s, when British cars like the Triumph Herald and Hillman Avenger were popular, Japanese imports began to appear, often with unfamiliar names. Daihatsu and Datsun were followed by Mazda, Honda, and, perhaps most memorably, Toyota.
BYD unveil their latest EV model called ‘Seal’, now available in the UK (Keystone/Cyril Zingaro)
In 1969, my father, always keen on advanced technology and a great deal, traded his Vauxhall Victor for a Toyota Crown Estate, which was equipped with features he’d never seen before. Central locking! Electric windows! The friendly chief mechanic at the dealership in Hackney, east London, tried to dissuade him:
They are just poor tin-can copies of British cars, made of cheaper materials. The clue is in the name – TOY-ota.
However, it turned out to be a reliable, speedy, and rare car. Its uniqueness often attracted attention. Given it was only 25 years after the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, some people in the crowd were not fond of these cars.
Chinese electric vehicles, packed with features, are expected to outsell Western brands, owing to their lower prices. Some models may cost under £10,000. BYD is currently the world’s top-selling Chinese EV brand, surpassing Tesla in sales. They also produce electric buses.
BYD is responsible for producing the world’s first purpose-built fully electric double-deck bus (AP)
Despite the quality of today’s BYDs, Geelys, and even the reimagined MG brand, a significant question hangs over Chinese electric cars: are they four-wheeled Trojan horses containing technology that could potentially spy on many aspects of life in the West?
Former President Biden specifically mentioned Chinese cars and trucks as a national security threat last year. Additionally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the issue of China allegedly flooding the West with cheap EVs with the Chinese government last week.
The perceived security risk stems from the fact that an electric car is perpetually connected to the Internet and acts as a data-collecting mobile phone. A reader of a recent New York Times article, who was born in Hong Kong, expressed concerns about these new vehicles:
Don’t any of you remember why we banned Chinese-designed Huawei and ZTE telecommunications equipment from becoming part of our phone and network infrastructure?
Now imagine thousands of internet-connected Chinese programmed computers in control of your Chinese-made cars roaming the country spying, spreading computer viruses, sending your travel history, maybe even everything you say, Alexa-style, to China.
“I know that introducing Chinese programmed cars alone won’t overthrow US democracy,” the commentator concluded, “but why deliver one more weapon into the hands of a known hostile power?”
Former US secretary of state Antony Blinken met with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing, 26 April 2024 (AP)
The possibility that a new, affordable Hedgehog is simultaneously a threat to personal freedom while efficiently transporting you to the supermarket is concerning. However, after working with Chinese companies, I wonder if this is a real threat or just a moral panic amplified by the White House to appease American automakers and their Trump-supporting workers.
I would argue that the Communist Party’s desire for internet-connected cars overseas to be hackable is understandable. Even the threat of Beijing disabling a significant number of vehicles and buses in the West could be seen as a weapon. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War emphasizes winning the war before the fighting begins.
In my experience, many Chinese people and firms see the Party and its policy-makers as an inconvenience to be managed with the least possible effort. This is not to say they’re not patriotic; they overwhelmingly are. The culture is also more socialist than you might imagine in a nominally capitalist society. However, making money, spending time with their families, getting an education, having fun, dating, eating, arguing, and enjoying life come before seeking global domination for China.
So, while it’s important to convince Party officials that the latest BYD model destined for the UK can be made to stop on the M6 with a click of a button in Beijing, the programming might not be executed with great care or enthusiasm. And does the required technical capacity truly exist?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with Chinese premier Li Qiang in Beijing 2024. (Xinhua)
This is not to say that Chinese entrepreneurs and engineers in the EV sector, both state-owned and private, are not enthusiastic about electric vehicles. On the contrary, they have seen our slow adoption of sustainable transport as a sign of backwardness for over 20 years.
The enthusiasm for clean transportation is evident in the entrance hall of BYD’s headquarters outside Shenzhen, where a large screen displays the question, “Where is Noah’s ark that saved mankind?” The EV business is also more appealing to ambitious young Chinese graduates.
The Ora Funky Cat EV car by Great Wall Motor at the Auto Shanghai show, April 2023 (AP)
I contacted Dr. Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Having studied Chinese business and economics, I anticipated disagreement with my theory. Much to my surprise, she largely agreed.
“I went to the Shanghai Electric Vehicle Public Data Collecting, Monitoring, and Research Center a few years ago,” said Dr Mazzocco. “They showed me this big screen where they had trackers on every single EV that had been registered in Shanghai and knew exactly where they were.”
“So, they were like, ‘Oh, look, somebody went to Xinjiang’. They were using this data to figure out how people were charging cars and how to be more efficient. But, yes, you could imagine how that data could be used for very different reasons.”
“It’s clear that BYD has a world domination strategy,” she continued. “It’s probably coming from the BYD headquarters. It certainly seems to be aligned with what Beijing would like as well.”
“However, the sort of regulation in China that expands the power of the Party is not helpful to tech companies trying to become multinationals and convince the rest of the world that they’re just profit-driven normal companies.”
“So in terms of the back-door capabilities, and how enthusiastic Chinese companies might be about it, my suspicion is that they would probably not be super enthusiastic, because it might cost them a lot of market share if it came out. But the real question is, would they do it? And I think the answer, we all know, is probably yes.”
